G1 grandmaster Dirk Schiemann was born in Dinslaken Germany in 1970 and started to play backgammon tournaments at the age of 19. While studying mathematics at the University of Dortmund in the mid-nineties, he began traveling to international tournaments and became a professional backgammon player. Between 1999 and 2005 Dirk was among the top ten Giants of Backgammon, reaching number 3 Giant in 2003.
In 2004 he took a break from backgammon, moved to Costa Rica, and became a professional poker player for almost 10 years. Back in Germany in 2017, Dirk picked up his backgammon career and started traveling to tournaments. In 2018 he became World Team Champion with Germany and won the Bahamas Invitational. In 2019 he won the Porta Nigra Invitational in Trier and in 2021 the UBC Contender tournament.
Dirk is now giving private backgammon lessons and can be found playing backgammon online on Backgammon Galaxy and on Backgammon Studio Heroes where he won the “Best of the Best” tournament in 2021 and in 2022.